11/09/07

Hummer Ads Refocus Image: Jim Dandy to the Rescue

Hummer is one of the world's most recognizable brands. Everybody knows what Hummers stand for.

For people who have never experienced the absolute feeling of power that can only come from a 6-truck convoy of 500 hp Peterbuilts, with bright orange chicken lights across chrome deer-catcher front bumpers, running hard through a starry moonless night, a Hummer best expresses the need for control and dominance.

It says "get out of my way" like no other 4-wheeler can.

The Jeep-like H3 has been successfully introduced in a few countries, notably Australia and New Zealand.

But Hummer's US sales fell 20% in the first 3 quarters of of 2007, more than the SUV average, as compared to 2006.

And the brand's negatives in the public consciousness are accumulating as a growing road-rage cultural divide, fuel, and environmental pressures grow.

So GM has begun promoting the overweight and assertive SUV with programs that cast Hummers as heroes. Cue the St. Bernard dogs with casks of liquor around their necks, call the ski patrol, and get me a Hummer owner, somebody just got buried by an avalanche!

One pilot program, with the appropriate acronym HOPE, is running in the Sioux Falls area. HOPE stands for "Hummer Owners Prepared for Emergencies." Owners volunteer their Hummers to shuttle Red Cross relief supplies in emergencies.

HOPE members must be certified in four Red Cross disaster courses, CPR, and first aid. Driving skills provided by training on a Hummer dealer's back-lot off-road course complete the certification process.

Hey, I blow the horn for emergency preparedness every chance I get, but this is pure public relations. I'm sure the Hummer owners feel better about themselves after being prepared to do so much good.

But the success of these pilots has encouraged bigger things.

A larger ad campaign will attempt to position the Hummer brand as source of goodness.

No, this is not a joke.

No need to wonder how GM could possibly have lost track of an astonishing $39,000,000,000.00 last quarter. Yes, thirty nine billion dollars.

These guys are serious about putting a halo on in-your-face Hummer.

"Hummer Heroes" advertising will depict fictional rescue workers, and owner volunteers, in Hummers, saving the helpless.

With Hummer's ad budget falling from $59M in 2006 to around $33M for 2007, GM's ad agency was probably forced to come up with a lower cost strategy to save the brand.

The ad spots will appear on TV, in print publications, and online. A Hummer Helps website will collect owners' stories of heroism, preferably on video.

Why not solicit user-generated-content? Hey, that's very web 2.0.

Highway heroes is a better theme than bunny rabbits and teddy bears, which could have been the result.

But a recent visit to the Lone Star Motorcycle Rally in Galveston revealed Hummers as the principal cars on display.

Not even one mean looking Dodge Charger, just high riding Hummers surrounded by bad-ass Harleys.

Yeah, chromed up, sinister-looking, jet black, Honda squashing Hummers.

The essence of evil.

That's more like it. Let's Ride.

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